A woman can get pregnant only during a short period of time during the ovulation. Usually this is a window of about 12 to 24 hours during a monthly cycle. A healthy young couple has about a 20 percent chance of getting pregnant during a monthly cycle. In the modern society couples desire to have their first child in their late twenties or early thirties. It is not uncommon for couples to try to get pregnant in their late thirties or early forties either. As the probability of getting pregnant gets smaller with increasing age, it becomes necessary to predict the most likely time to get pregnant, i.e. the time of ovulation.
The commonly used methods for predicting ovulation include recording base body temperature and which some women find tedious and time taking. Specifically, as it may not be enough to measure the temperature just during one cycle, but the woman would need to follow the body temperature for several months to get an idea of the pattern of the cycle.
Accordingly there is need for a method to predict ovulation and to save the data to see the pattern of the cycle. Also there is a need to share the data of longer period of time with a doctor.
Similarly, there is a need for animal breeders to predict a likely time for the female animal to become pregnant. For example, horses are seasonal breeders, meaning that there are specific times during which they are able to reproduce. Typically they breed in the spring and the summer months. The menstrual cycle of an average mare is 21 days. Estrus lasts for 5 days to 1 week. Ovulation typically occurs one to two days before the end of estrus. Fertilization is possible for up to 30 hours after ovulation takes place. While feral and wild horses breed successfully without human assistance, planned mating is used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses. For this purpose there is a need for a device to predict the likely time frame of a mare to become pregnant.
Similarly, there is a need for dog breeders to predict the likelihood of a bitch to become pregnant.
This invention utilizes a unique device to predict ovulation based on hormonal changes which occur in a female during ovulation and the resultant change in the make-up of her bodily fluids during this important time. This device utilizes the phenomenon known as “ferning” wherein a specimen of dried fluid sample produces crystals of a particular characteristic which is indicative of ovulation.
Georgios Papanicolaou described in 1945 how crystals were formed when a drop of cervical mucus was placed on a saline-free glass slide and allowed to air dry. Rydberg and Madsen (Rydbergm E. and Madsen V 1948. Acta Obst. And Gynec. Scandinay. 28:386) characterized the crystals to be common salt and the formation of the crystals was shown to be due to the prescience of mucine. Zondek and Rozin reported in 1954 (Zondek, B. and Rozin, S. 1954 Obst. and Gynec. 3: 463) that the crystallization is not specific for cervical mucus and that the same phenomenon appears in all mucus secretions and in most body fluids. The crystallization is called ferning, as the crystals have a fern-like pattern on the slide.
In presence of estrogen, just prior to ovulation, the cervical mucus, or other body fluid mucus forms fern-like patterns due to crystallization of sodium chloride on mucus fibers. This phenomenon is used to provide indirect evidence ovulation and fertility. However, this test does not predict the time of ovulation, but it gives indications of likely time of becoming pregnant.
There are several devices for ovulation prediction using detection of body fluid characteristics in the known art:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,793,886 is directed to a kit for the detection of characteristic and parameters of body fluids, such as saliva, urine and cervical mucus for identifying fertility comprising a set of flat plate-shaped supports for ampoules of said body fluids and a viewer provided with an enlargement means. Each of said flat plate-shape supports for body fluid present a shallow basin or trap with a convex bottom with a raised rim, and is equipped with locking fins for coupling with the viewer.
US 2003/0179446 is directed to a portable microscopic visualization tube for determining ovulation from saliva assay. It has a microscopic lens module, a beam tube, an electric powered LED mechanism, and a tube cap, and the LED mechanism includes a button battery seat, characterized in that the mounting position of the edge of the button seat and the inner wall of the beam tube is correspondingly formed in recessing block of protruding block such that the entire LED mechanism can be withdrawn from the beam tube to replace the battery.
US 2006/0018043 is directed to a portable handheld fertility/ovulation tester that uses ambient light. A sample holding frame and adjustable lens assembly is inserted into a light chamber in the bottom of the tester. An aperture in the bottom of the chamber is aligned with a microscope lens assembly and is sized to provide ambient light for the microscope lens assembly. The aperture may also have an optional light gathering lens to increase illumination. The adjustable lens assembly is threaded into a sample plate frame having a transparent sample plate. The microscope lens assembly is removably mounted onto the light chamber such that when the fertility ovulation tester must be held with the aperture pointed towards an ambient light source in order to observe the sample.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,369,331 provides a fixed focus ovulation tester comprising an inner casing, having a top and a bottom end; a controllable illuminating assembly located inside the inner casing and near the bottom end of the inner casing and being sealed at the bottom by a bottom face plate and a fixed focus eye piece assembly having a bottom inner portion for placing a biological specimen and a top outer portion for viewing the specimen being removably located at the top end of the inner casing.
In all of the above devices a spherical lens is used. In the case of a spherical lens, light enters the lens both along its axis and distant from the axis. This creates an aberration producing a blurry image around the perimeter of the image field. This is noticeable with the human eye, causing the user to attempt to refocus the image, and is more particularly noticeable when utilizing electronic imaging. Further, light entering these lenses anti-parallel to the axis produces a coma aberration and results in a hazy image, especially when viewing crystals spread across a finite surface.
An improvement to the lenses is provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/076,727 which discloses a hand held ovulation predictor device for women, which includes an ovulation predictor device body, an optical subassembly containing one or more aspheric lenses, an objective mount and a focus ring being movably connected to the ovulation predictor objective mount.
The entire prior art devices require that the user remembers how the samples looked earlier. There is no way to compare previous samples, nor is there a way to build any kind of liable record of the findings. None of the prior art devices allow the user to save any data or pictures, manipulate the data or share the information with her doctor.
There are various tests and devices to determine pregnancy of a mammal animal, other than a human being. However, there are no simple means to predict ovulation of the animal.
The invention according to this disclosure provides solutions to the flaws or currently available devices and practices.